National TV Ratings

September 29, 2008

It's that time of year when sport splits the nation. The AFL Grand Final drew 2.49 million viewers in the mainland capitals on Saturday (way below the 3.15 million it managed in 2006). Meanwhile only 898,000 watched the NRL preliminary final. The AFL total included included 331,000 Sydneysiders, while the biffo could manage only 24,000 southerners.

That result clinched the week for Channel Seven, which averaged 29.9 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 27.1, Ten 20.0, ABC 17.8, and SBS 5.2. Apart from the footy, the most watched shows included Packed To The Rafters (7), Find My Family (7), Border Security (7) and Wednesday's new episodes of Nine's latest Bandaid Two and A Half Men (9).

September 22, 2008

The two new Aussie cop shows -- Channel Nine's The Strip and Channel Ten's Rush -- each attracted a million viewers in the mainland capitals last week, but one is considered an impending flop and the other a modest success. That's because Nine's program is showing at 8.30pm and Ten's at 9.30 pm, when most Australians are preparing for bed. If The Strip keeps losing viewers at its current rate, Nine will do a Canal Road on it (dump it to late night), although at this stage in the year, there's not much to replace it with. It's not as if Gordon Ramsay works as a programming bandaid any more.

September 15, 2008

Channel Nine learned two small things and one big thing last week. The smalls: Gordon Ramsay was a flash in the pan (the audience for his latest Kitchen Nightmares was down half a million on his pre-Olympic figures, apparently because Nine had overstuffed the viewers, and in the process, stuffed itself); and the success of Seven's City Homicide cannot be generalised into a fad for Australian cop shows (Nine's The Strip was down 200,000 from its debut).

The big: Nine will not be making a comeback this year, because Seven will have the largest audience share when the ratings race ends in November. Nine's audience may be up a bit, but it will not be The One.

September 08, 2008

Last Monday, Channel Ten launched a daily program called Taken Out, which is also about relationships, and drew 851,000 viewers. By Friday TO had sunk to 672,000 viewers. Did somebody say they'd seen Yasmin's ghost in Ten's corridors? Will the new description for a rapidly failing show be "It was Taken Out and ..."?

Yasmin also made a fleeting visit to the ABC on Wednesday, when its new comedy Very Small Business did exactly what its title said -- 708,000 viewers in the 9.30 timeslot that previously enjoyed 1.1 million for the opening episodes of The Hollowmen (now drawing 919,000 at 9pm).

September 01, 2008

If Kerry Packer had been alive, there would have been boots applied to buttocks at Channel Nine last week. Packer hated missed opportunities. By opting to hold back its launch of new programs till this week, Nine handed the audience to Seven on a platter.

For the first three days of the week, it looked as if a nation had lost its remote during the Olympics and had its dial stuck on Seven, which drew 1.9 million to the new dramedy Packed to the Rafters and to City Homicide, 1.8 million to Find My Family and Border Security, and 1.7 million to The Force and RSPCA Animal Rescue. Seven's only failure was Make Me A Supermodel, whose audience of 932,000 seems to prove that you need a little more than f---ability to find success on Australian television.

August 25, 2008

Of course Channel Seven won gold for attracting the biggest numbers last week -- an average of 1.9 million viewers in the mainland capitals every night and 43 per cent of the prime time audience -- but who won the silver and bronze? Nine got six programs into the Seven-dominated top 30 for the week, with its Sunday news and 60 Minutes pulling 1.4 million, and A Current Affair 1.1 million (not much less than its average in non-Olympic times). So that's a silver for Nine.

And the bronze must go to the ABC, which managed three top 30 performers -- its weeknight news with 1.1 million and Doctor Who and Spicks and Specks, both with 1 million. The Doctor scored strongly again last night, with his most interesting episode so far this season. Stay out of the shadows.

August 18, 2008

Did Australians watch anything other than the Olympics last week? Answer: yes, and the ABC reaped the benefits of offering an alternative to nationalism. Its most popular shows barely suffered a dent in audience -- ABC Sunday news and Spicks and Specks drew 1.1 million, Dr Who drew 1 million and a repeat of Agatha Christie's Poirot drew 994,000 on Friday before the great writer herself met Dr Who himself on Sunday night.

Channel Nine's entries in the top 30 for the week were 60 Minutes , the Sunday news, and the weekday news (for the full chart, go here). Ten's best affort was a repeat of NCIS. Picking up Seven's leftovers, SBS scored with the women's cycling road race (725,000) and Men's Archery (399,000). And it was business as usual for Pay TV, with 224,000 for NRL Titans v Knights (Fox Sports 2), 208,000 for NRL Wariors v. Sharks (Fox Sports 2), 191,000 for Project Runway Australia (Arena) and 165,000 for American Dad! (Fox 8).

August 11, 2008

If Seven's programmers were worried that politics or pollution might put Australians off switching to Beijing, they can relax now. On Friday night an average of 3.3 million people in the mainland capitals watched the Olympic opening ceremony between 10 pm and 2am, with a peak audience of 4.4 million for the singing and 2.5 million still awake when the Australians marched in. (By comparison, the Athens opening in 2004 was watched by 3.04 million, Sydney scored 6.5m in 2000 and Atlanta scored 3.1m in 1996.

Then on Saturday evening, 2.2 million watched the heats. Seven estimates that 11.8 million Australians saw some part of the coverage on Friday or Saturday, offering some compensation for the disappointing performance of Make Me A Supermodel, which drew only a million viewers on Wednesday and Thursday and fell way behind Nine's gloriously silly new game show Hole In The Wall.

August 04, 2008

Seven won last week, with 29.4 per cent of the prime time audience, thanks to The Force (1.7m in the mainland capitals), a repeat of Border Security , RSPCA Animal Rescue and the Monday to Friday news, but Nine managed 27 per cent with the help of 60 Minutes (1.7m), Nine news Sunday and Domestic Blitz .
(Ed note: Unfortunately for Nine the much anticipated final season of McLeod's Daughters is of to a poor start attracting only 880,000 viewers on Wednesday night).

The ABC scored 18.1 per cent with The Gruen Transfer , Spicks and Specks , and Foyle's War, while Ten got 20 per cent even though its only entries in the Top 40 were a repeat of Thank God You're Here and a repeat of NCIS (1.2m).

July 28, 2008

It was back to domesticity and reassuring predictability in Australia's entertainment choices last week. According to OzTAM, Channel Seven averaged 28.6 per cent of the prime time audience, scoring with its Sunday news, Better Homes and Gardens, City Homicide and RSPCA Animal Rescue.

Channel Nine got 25.9 per cent, thanks to 60 Minutes and Domestic Blitz. Only Wipeout suggested some viewers prefer a little edginess. Over the ratings year so far, Seven and Nine are neck and neck, each with 27.7 per cent of the audience.

Channel Ten (21.1 per cent last week) finally found an audience for Big Brother, which drew 1.4m for the announcement of its winner, but otherwise Ten could not get a program into the top 30 (see below). On the ABC (17 per cent), The Hollowmen have lost their sheen, dropping 200,000 to 907,000 (are viewers finding the show too cynical for these idealistic times?). But The Gruen Transfer and Spicks and Specks continue to soar, and Peter Cundall's final appearance on Gardening Australia drew 932,000 on Saturday.